*CUPID'S MATCH BOOK 2* FIRST DRAFT
Lila receives an ominous Valentine's Day card.
Cupid & Cal are keeping a dark secret.
Fate is being interfered with.
And a sadistic, and extremely powerful banished cupid is intent on stealing Lila's heart. Literal...
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We head through the indoor courtyard where Venus's statue used to stand, veering off through one of the archways after Crystal.
The air is expectant – hopeful even.
Has Crystal found out what's going on? Can we use her information to save Cal?
I'm expecting to be led to Venus's office – the narrow, black and white space scented with myrtle flowers and rot. But instead Crystal veers off down another elaborately tiled corridor, up some steps, and to a white door with Crystal, C.E.O written on a black metal plaque.
As if sensing my confusion Crystal looks over her shoulder at me.
"I relocated," she says. "Something about her old office gave me the creeps."
My mind flashes back to the time when Crystal and Cupid were both kidnapped and held in glass tanks full of water in that room.
I nod grimly.
"Understandable," I say.
We head into a spacious, white room and head to her glass desk by the back wall. There's a collection of bright pink and deep black armchairs arranged around it which Cupid, Cal, and I sit in. Crystal sits at the other side, pulls her chair forward, and looks at us all – her blue eyes bright.
She moves her gaze to the center of the desk, just past the white screen of her computer. Two of the gold, foil like coins Mino showed us earlier sit there.
What had Cupid called them?
Obals.
We all stare at them, nonplussed.
"Erm...some nice coins you got there, Crystal..." says Cupid – leaning back in his chair and raising a thick eyebrow. "Hope you're not wanting to buy something with them though. Not sure if you're aware but they went out of circulation quite a while ago..."
She gives him a look.
"Yes, I'm well aware. Thank you, Cupid." She brings her gaze up to mine, and then Cal's. "It's how he's creating the undead."
Cal's brow's furrow while Cupid leans forward in his pink armchair, resting his elbows on his knees.
"Care to elaborate?"
"Charon..." mutters Cal.
"Huh?" I say.
Cupid and I both turn to look at him. Crystal nods.
"One obal – the fayre for the ferry," she says.
The mention of the ferry makes me think of something I heard earlier, though I can't remember what.
"What ferry?" I ask.
Cupid glances at me, a darkness in his ocean eyes.
"The ferry to the other side. The ferry of the dead," he turns back to Crystal and shakes his head. "It's not possible. It's a one way journey. No-one comes back from where that ferry goes."
